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outheast Asia is blessed with land and climate that is favorable for growing coffee, one of the most tradable agriculture commodities in the world. Coffee from Southeast Asia is well known for its exotic taste and is recognized as among the most aromatic and delicious coffee beans in the world.

Vietnam and Indonesia are Southeast Asia’s main coffee-producing and exporting countries. Vietnam, the second-largest producer and exporter in the world, exports more than 1.5 million tons of coffee beans a year, with a total value of US$3 billion in the 2006 to 2016 period. Indonesia, the world’s third-largest producer, exported 600,000 tons in 2015 with a total value of $1.2 billion.

Other ASEAN countries, such as Thailand, Laos, and the Philippines, are trying to catch up with Indonesia and Vietnam, making coffee one of the most tradable commodities in the region.

Even though coffee beans are supplied by millions of smallholder farmers across Southeast Asia and countless branded and traditional cafés have become huge sources of employment for young baristas in the cities, sadly coffee is not even recognized in ASEAN’s statistical book as one of the most important commodities.

Despite the economic prospects, recent data on coffee production around the world and especially in the top-producing countries of ASEAN show a continuous decline, threatening the livelihood of millions of farmers. One of the main causes of this slump is the extreme weather caused by climate change.

A combination of climate-induced events including higher temperatures, long drought punctuated by intense rainfall and new pest outbreaks such as coffee berry borer, coffee rust, devastating insects and fungi that previously did not survive the cool mountain weather, have been reported as being responsible for this decline in coffee production.

In Vietnam alone, around half a million coffee farmers will be affected by this climate-driven phenomenon. Along similar lines, production declines have also been reported in most of the major coffee production zones in Indonesia, such as Sumatra, Sulawesi and Java, and will affect the majority of smallholder farmers involved in coffee production in Indonesia.

The coffee species that will be affected the most is the premium and weather-sensitive arabica coffee that mostly grows at higher altitudes. Some farming groups in the Gayo highlands in Aceh have seen coffee harvests fall by up to 50 percent.

Climate change, coupled with increased national consumption, has even compelled Indonesia to import coffee beans, mainly from Vietnam and Brazil.

Unfortunately, the implications of climate change for ASEAN’s coffee production are rarely discussed or studied. It seems that most of the responsible bodies and research institutions in ASEAN have been absent in the response to the devastating impacts of climate change.

For example, significant increases in the demand for coffee, either within ASEAN countries or from major coffee-importing countries in Europe and North America, might trigger farmers to grow more coffee. Some studies indicate that increasing production in some coffee-producing countries comes at the expense of natural forests.

There are many reported cases of farmers moving upward to higher altitudes to find a suitable climate for their coffee crops, and they are doing so by clearing large areas of natural forest.

Coffee-producing countries in ASEAN should anticipate the worsening of the situation due to the decreased availability of suitable land for premium coffee plantations caused by climate change.

Planning and implementation of climate change adaptation efforts in major coffee-producing countries in ASEAN are still biased toward staple crops, especially rice. Coffee is still not a priority.

In addition, most planning for adaptation efforts in ASEAN countries have been initiated by central governments with varied buy-in from local governments, where the efforts are most needed.

To maintain coffee production, coffee-producing countries in ASEAN will need to come up with specific adaptation plans for each coffee region.

For example, a little fine tuning of the production process by using agroforestry systems, including adding economically valuable shade trees, would avoid further deforestation, reduce emissions, increase alternative sources of income for farmers and improve the quality of the beans.

While 95 percent of coffee producers in ASEAN are smallholder farmers, many big businesses are engaged in the trading and processing of coffee beans and will therefore also need to participate in the fight against the impact of climate change.

Both governments and the private sector can start investing for a future climate-proven coffee industry by using part of their own budget and profits and/or by looking for alternative sources of funding.

The Green Climate Fund, a global fund created to respond to the challenge of climate change, under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, could be a prospective one. A number of adaptation research initiatives, including finding coffee species more tolerant to warmer temperatures and pests, could be a good start. However, until very recently, no initiative from any countries to tap this huge source of funding has been reported.

In order to sustain premium coffee production in ASEAN, strategic collaboration between smallholder coffee farmers, private sector enterprises and national and local governments is a must. The ASEAN Secretariat, through its related bodies, could play a role to facilitate this effort regionally.
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